‘Revenge’ Killing Following Death of ARSA Leader

A view of a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on November 16, 2018. / Reuters

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By Muktadir Rashid 25 February 2019

DHAKA—Armed assailants shot dead one Rohingya paramedic and injured a computer technician at the Muchuni camp in Teknaf sub-district of Cox’s Bazar on Friday evening for allegedly sharing information about the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) military commander Nurul Alam who was killed in a ‘gunfight’ with a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) earlier the same day.

The police discovered the body of paramedic Mohamed Hamid, 41, in a forested area near the camp hours after being kidnapped by sympathizers of Nurul Alam. Computer operator Hasan Ali was shot in Muchuni refugee camp at around 7 p.m. on Friday.

“The police on receiving information rushed to the spot and dispatched Hasan to the district hospital, while the body of Hamid was found later at night,” said additional police Superintendent Nihad Adnan Taian of Teknaf-Ukhia Circle.

The police official said sympathizers of slain Nurul Alam carried out the attack at the dispensary where Hamid, better known as Doctor Hamid, worked and took his body to the nearby forest.

He suspected that Nurul Alam’s cohorts singled him out and killed him as revenge for sharing information about Nurul Alam.

Teknaf police and army personnel rushed to the spot and recovered Hamid’s body, sending it to the district hospital.

Nurul Alam is said to have been involved in, or an organizer of, a number of serious crimes committed in the region since 2016, including murder and looting, most notably an incident of looting of arms from an Ansar security establishment near the Nayapara Rohingya shelter in Tekhnaf in May 2016. The commander of the Ansar battalion was killed during the incident.

Nurul Alam was killed on Friday morning in what has been called a “gunfight” with RAB next to the road near Damdamia of Teknaf.